I'm itching to know what you all have conjured up so far in the way of Age of Sigmar fluff. Surely not all of you got to these mortal realms in an exodus engine, so I'm curious to see what your stories involve. We aren't given an entire continent to call home, and there are no limits to which realm fits our respective armies. Or do you not live in the mortal realms at all? is every skink and saurus just a star in the sky waiting for a slann to summon them and give them purpose? Surprise me! Anything and everything...
I guess I'll get things started... After Tlac'Natai's death, he found himself suspended within the presence of none other than Sigmar himself. Sigmar spoke highly of Tlac'Natai's determination and unwavering devotion to his task, and went on to say that such devotion was wasted on the Old Ones. Sigmar wanted to employ Tlac'Natai, and the two struck a deal. Sigmar permitted Tlac'Natai to pick and choose which souls to save in The End Times, and Tlac'Natai would lord over these souls for eternity. Sigmar only asked that Tlac'Natai keep the souls safe, and any move he makes must be in the name of Sigmar. Tlac'Natai agreed to these terms graciously. Tlac'Natai bided his time until the eventual fall of his beloved city, Poneextlan, in the Old World. He thought long about what Sigmar had said regarding his wasted devotion, and he would not waste a second chance at existence. He had heard of a desert that formed in the Realm of Light, in the region that held the realmgate to the Realm of Fire. This would make a fitting home for the wayward souls of Poneextlan. Tlac'Natai cast a net through the void to reel in all the spirits that scattered in the wake of destruction. When he was satisfied with the legion he accumulated, he gave them a renewed physical form so they may enact his will in the mortal realms. They set out to find this fabled desert in the Realm of Light, wandering for countless years in this land of never-fading light. When the foliage began to thin out, and the temperature rose, Tlac'Natai knew they were on the right track. The entire caravan grew lively with the warmth returning to their blood; skinks volunteered to scout ahead, and saurus and kroxigor alike were buzzing with anticipation. Terradon riders were reporting back that if they flew too high, the horizon would bend until the ground below seemingly popped out of existence. The realmgate must be near, and this is where Tlac'Natai would settle his people. There were plenty of defensible valleys in this region, so they had the luxury to pick and choose which home was just right. Tlac'Natai left Ahtunowhiho in charge of the forces and tasked him with drawing plans for the construction of New Poneextlan. So there you have it, I put my desert lizards back in the desert. I still plan on finishing up the story I have set back in the Old World, and since I plan on actually playing AoS, there will most definitely be some mortal realm shenanigans.
Given that I have two WIP stories in the Old World and a bunch more stories in my "idea file" I have had little desire to adapt my fluff narrative to Age of Sigmar. Especially I wasn't planning on buying any Age of Sigmar literature that's not free. I like fluff but I was more than a little irked that the End Times books were around 90% fluff 10% crunch. The Age of Sigmar books seem 95%/5%. As far as I understand, the AoS BRB equivalent does not have any rules text that cannot be found for free online. I'll pay $40+ for a game book, but my favorite novels tend to be much cheaper. If GW wants to sell me a novel, they have to price their stuff like a novel. Mostly I want to finish the ideas I had developed for my 8th ed fluff that I started to brainstorm well before AoS came out. I'm not opposed to AoS fluff and will eagerly read and index any that people write, but I have very little desire to write it myself.
I dislike that you let your lizards fall apart from the old ones and join sigmars army. Especially because aos fluff says that even the storm cast don't really know who they are where they from and what their real intentions are. But maybe you refer to a certain tribe of the lizardmen... All in all a nice story that places lizardmen where they should be.
I fully understand not buying the books, they are mostly stories with a couple rules here and there, but nowhere near the status of Novel. And it is just a one off tribe of lizards that is whole heartedly aligned with Sigmar (my room mate plays as the sigmarines and I wanted a hardline connection back to Sigmar). But rest assured, that their alliance with Sigmar is not going to be stable, I like the themes of internal conflict and civil war too much. I still have no idea which way to take a story for them yet, but I'm in no hurry. I'm looking at this whole new universe that's barely developed as a sandbox fluff-wise. I think we know about as much as we're gona know about seraphon for now, and I didn't feel like waiting for official stuff to come out (because I'm going to disregard it anyways and keep to my isolationist lizards). I really just want to know what setting everyone is working with because there is no map and we can make up any environment we want in what ever realm we want. How many of us crashed our exodus engine and have to start over? who are the neighbors that push the story along? Were you forced to make some uneasy alliances? Are they living in the realm of death so they can keep their enemies closer? Even if you put the lizards back in their jungles, how has this new universe affected the way they go about daily life? I like hearing any and all fluff just because it's such a reflection of the self and I know that this particular community is spewing with creativity and ideas that could not have come from my brain.
Here's the fluff I've been working on for my Lizards in AoS: The Exodus Engine my lizards were on ended up in Ulgu, the realm of shadows. Lord Malzareth, unlike most of his peers, decided not to land his exodus engine, and the city/settlement remained within the shadowy clouds of Ulgu for millenia, only dropping below the magical clouds to to seed the Black Forest (more of a jungle, really) below the city with the creatures that the lizardmen brought from the old world, and to retrieve new beasts when they needed them. Malzareth watched the as the races of the world-that-was settled the realm of shadow. This pleased him, but he saw no reason to reveal the presence of the city and risk conflict, as the city was small, and the spawning pools had been rather inactive since the death of the old world. Then, chaos returned. Again, Malzareth simply watched as the realm was overrun by the forces of chaos, namely followers of Tzeentch and Skaven of clan Eskerin following a vermilord deceiver known only as 'The Shadow-kin.' Around this time, Oxotl arrived in the city with a dozen bands of chameleon skinks. They came before Malzareth and asked his permission to use the city as a base from which to launch raids on the forces of chaos and protect those of the lesser races that they could. Malzareth had wanted to confront the forces of chaos, but had not the saurus to do so in open battle. As such, he agreed to Oxotl's plan, and gave him the use of the city's few chameleons and their sizable force of terradon riders. Over the next few millenia, Oxotl would lead countless attacks against the forces of the Shadow-kin and the Harbringers of light, a Tzeentchian warband obsessed with discovering everything there was within the realm of shadow, and with subjugating it's people for its leader's vile magical experiments. The city remained within the high clouds of Ulgu, undetected by the forces of chaos aside from the odd furry or screamer which would stumble upon the city and be swiftly destroyed by the flights of terradon and ripperdactyl riders who flew constant patrols around the flying fortress. And so things remained, until the arrival of the stormcast eternals. A party of chamelion skinks, led by Oxotl himself, was scouting out a skaven nest near the Black Forrest when a blast of twin-tailed lightning struck down from the heavens and deposited a force of armored giants the size of saurus, clad in burnished steel and green colored armor, and wielding gleaming warhammers. In moments, over half of their number took to the skies on wings of light, flying off to scout out the surrounding area, while the rest secured the immediate area, shields raised and hammers at the ready. Oxotl watched the warriors, and sensed that they had an aura of honor, of order, of good. He was considering approaching the warriors when they were set upon by swarms of night runners. The warriors fought valiantly, but one by one they were overrun, their fallen bodies vanishing in brilliant flashes of light when struck down. Eventually, only one remained, and it was subdued by the skaven and carried back to their nest. Oxotl decided to try and rescue this strange creature, and so led his band into the warren. They sneaked in, killing sentries and guards as they passed, before eventually finding the strange creature chained to a wall, being interogated by a grey seer. Oxotl shot the seer with a dart containing a particularly nasty poison, then freed the strange creature, who retrieved its shield and hammer from an adjoining room as the alarm was raised. Together with their new ally, the chameleons and Oxotl fought their way out of the warren and fled into the jungle. There, he led the warrior to a gateway, much like a realmgate, which transported them to the floating city. Once there, the newcomer was taken before Malzareth. The Slann reguarded the warrior, and asked her name. She Replied that her name was Yvera, and that she was a liberator prime of the Banehammers chamber of the Daughters of Sigmar stormhost, and demanded to know where she was. Malzareth humored the eternal, sensing that she was a kindred spirit to the seriphon, and told her of the city and its inhabitants. He asked if more of her kind would come. She said yes, that the force she came with was just the vanguard, and her sisters would soon arrive in force. So, for the first time in many thousands of years, Lord Malzareth left his temple, in order to meet with the stormcasts and arrange some sort of alliance. He left with the full force of his temple guard, in addition to the city's remaining saurus and many skinks and terradon riders, plus Oxotl's chameleons. They left the same way they entered, and the slann subtly errased the knowledge of how to get to the city from Yvera's mind. When the seriphon and the ayward libereator arived at the staging point, they found a pitched battle in progress. The Banehammers had engaged the skaven from the warren and were in danger of being overrun. Yvera charged immediately, desperate to help her sisters, and Malzareth ordered the saurus to follow. With a flank charge from a horde of saurus, plus attacks from above by the teradons and the assassination of the clan-leaders by Oxotl and his followers, the battle was decided quickly. Malzareth met with the Lord (or in this case, Lady) celestant of the Banehammers, Morticia Demonbane. She thanked the slann for his aid, and for rescuing her warrior. Malzareth did not reply to the thanks, saying only this: "You are not alone in this realm. When you need aid, we will come. We will be watching. Good luck, eternal." And the whole army vanished in a flash of celestial magic. Since then, the Banehammers have been assisted by Terradons and skinks in many battles. These warriors never stay for long though, always vannishing at battle's end. It really matters not to the eternals, who were simply glad to have an ally in this dark and gloomy realm. And all the while, Malzareth covertly guides the eternals through the realm towards the Ayr realmgate. For what reason, none but him know. When they fight together, I call it a celestial alliance, due to the whole lightning blood thing. I'm planning on getting some stormcast, so I came up with this. I also wanted to take advantage of the fact that stormcast can be male or female, and make the first all-female stormhost. (Edit: Shit, I just realized how long this was. Jesus...)
I'm a fan of both the floating city and the female battalion. Operating in the Shadow Realm though, you never know which alliances can be trusted.
Why do you think lord Malzareth stayed hidden for so long? And why the stormcast know so little about the lizards? He only revealed their existance to the Banehammers b/c they can open the realmgate to the celestial realm. There is something there that he wants, and he plans to use the stormcast to get himself (and Oxotl) into Azarym.
Very interesting! I have to say the floating hidden city is brilliant! Such a cool set piece that is so useful!
I was thinking of trying my hand at it, of course I haven't got much to go off of, but I figured with the summoning and different realms, what if each one doesn't have a permanent coporeal form. For example if I summon Tetto'eko to the fire realm would he look slightly different from the death realm? This would make sense when you look at different armies with different paint schemes for the same characters. So maybe he comes into fire realm with red skin, or death realm with grey skin. Or any time he gets summoned to action by a different slann he takes in the colours and form that the slann has decided he should look like. Lots of options with look, different forms or models, colour schemes, and modified, like mine even have their own place! Mine of course breaches copyrights of several companies! Haha! But would make for some funny fluff!
I've been working on Ataxa's fluff for AoS (need to do one for my army as a whole but at the moment just Ataxa) Ataxa got stuck in the bubble/ void for ages, so he had the chance to sit and adapt to his curse. When he finally got freed, he found that he was heavily separated from his Lizard tribe. So he just spent his time traveling around, going through gates to find them. Occasionally joining other factions for a short spell, being able to alter his appearance (Tzeentch curse) to gain benefit from the army he temporally joined when fighting against Chaos. He knows he can't fend them by himself. Then he just continues wandering around. He pretty does that all the time, till he finds his tribe.
So I was wrong, obviously, we got a battle tome! I'll probably have to repost or revive this thread after everyone's had some time to digest the new lore and fluff and what not.
It's nice to see people's army background adapting to AoS! To say I had to review my own army's story is an understatement. When the End Times started I kind of assumed that it would be the new environment we'd find ourselves gaming in - an intense struggle for survival with the Apocalypse in full swing and all factions drawn together with the fat trimmed. I thought it would be the new status quo. Oh how wrong I was! My story now is a mess of abandoned arcs and characters that find themselves with little purpose, and some without a future. Still, I have a plan to bring me into the new world but I don't want to spoil it for my loyal fans!
Completely forgot to mention the background for my wife's Aelfs! Essentially before the return of Chaos a bunch of refugee Aelfs set up a colony in the crater of a large volcanic island in the Realm of Light. In the centre of the island is a Realmgate to the Realm of Life, which is saturating the crater with Life magic. The combination of Light and Life magic has created a unique environment of lush yet dangerous wilderness. They establish an empire, and experience their own kind of "sundering" event which results in a tribal social structure where Women stay in the crater and eventually become forest sprites, and men leave the crater once they reach a certain age. Then Chaos comes and they begin to unite again in a struggle for survival as their paradise realm is twisted into a nightmare land of monsters and daemons. There's a link in my signature for it if you want to read it's more of a history/background piece than a story so don't expect anything too exciting.